The euro soared to the highest level in over a year while bond yields and global shares also climbed, as an ongoing barrage of coordinated hawkish comments from central banks signaled the era of easy money might be coming to an end for more than just the United States. S&P futures were fractionally in the green following the best day for US equities in two months.

Moments ago the Fed released the first phase of its annual stress test which, once again, found that all thirty-four of the US largest banks "passed", exceeding minimum projected capital and leverage ratios under severely adverse scenarios, based on their projected ability to withstand economic shocks

Global markets were oddly calm on Friday, the last day of trading before the first round of France's closely fought presidential election, with European stocks posting modest declines ahead of Sunday's main event, Asian shares rising, and set for first weekly gain in the past month, while U.S. futures were unchanged.

"... changes in global economic and business conditions, consumer and business spending, the availability and cost of capital, unemployment rates, geopolitical conditions (including potential impacts resulting from the U.S. Administration and the proposed exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union)"

After a rough 1.5 years living under the scrutiny of a Connecticut chapter 11 bankruptcy judge, Curtis Jackson III (a.k.a. "50 Cent") has finally emerged from bankruptcy after repaying $22 million to creditors.